After Leclerc overthrew a speedy Lando Norris, could he keep it up in FP2? Here is what happened at the F1 2024 Singapore GP second practice.
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The big news coming into this weekend at the F1 2024 Singapore GP is the dispute over McLaren’s rear wing. Some argued that the team were attempting a subtle double DRS effect. However, the FIA deemed the car legal. The team decided to change the rear wing for this weekend after protests from competitors. Legalities aside, Williams continued to impress. In a twist of fate, the top teams appeared to be suffering with their traction.
Session Begins:
With cars lathered in aerodynamic paint, the green light came down and the cars took to the track. Al most immediately as the session began, Sergio Perez was shown a black and white flag for breaching regulations surrounding conduct at the pit exit. After falling behind last weekend in qualifying, Lando Norris was eager to make up the missed lap time going quickest on his first timed lap. Similarly to FP1, this time was quickly overtaken by a speedy Charles Leclerc. Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton chimed in on the team radio reporting that “Traction is very bad”. Williams continue to impress on these ever evolving track conditions by keeping their lap times within the top ten. Colapinto brought some laughs to the team by pulling into Alpine’s pit box by mistake.
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Complaints Over Traction:
Hamilton’s traction issues continued with further reports over the radio as well as Verstappen complaining of the same issue. During this weekend so far, it appears as though Mercedes have been on the back foot. However, we cannot come to any conclusion until we see their qualifying and race pace. In typical fashion as of late, Alex Albon continues to impress the Williams team by topping the times at the 16 minute mark of the session. At this point, drivers were exploring the freshly resurfaced and pressure washed track which proved to cause issues regarding grip with a lot of drivers. An overwhelming number of reports came through from Red Bull and Ferrari regarding traction. While the top teams struggled, Albon continued to blitz the times in P1.
Meanwhile, Norris continued to produce consistent purple sectors and displayed the speed that McLaren should be working at. He set a 1:30.272 at the halfway mark of FP1. Leclerc briefly clipped the wall at turn 14, proving the continuous struggle for grip. The McLaren vs. Ferrari battle in pace from last weekend continues as Norris and Leclerc repeatedly overlapped each others lap times for the P1 spot. McLaren can’t owe all their pace to the controversial rear wing though as they continued to dominate without it.
After driving the wheels off of his W15, Lewis Hamilton could only reach P15 which he claimed to be “unbelievable”. Whether direct car performance or track conditions, Mercedes have really struggled so far. Lando Norris had a brief brush against the wall but escaped without damage and remained on top. To add to the plethora of radio complaints, Carlos Sainz also reported a potential issue with his brakes, claiming that his front right kept locking up. The RB team surprised us all with their seemingly out of the blue pace. both Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo were producing lap times within the top six.
Russell Hits The Wall:
Unfortunately towards the very end of the session, George Russell buried his car into the wall which triggered the yellow flags and naturally, the end of the session. After nursing his car back into the pits, mechanics had great difficulty trying to dislodge the nose from the rest of the car.
As the chequered flag came down, Lando Norris came out on top over Charles Leclerc on the time sheets. The papaya team will be hoping to uphold this pace for qualifying tomorrow. They wont be too comfortable though as Ferrari is close behind them.
Feature Image Credit: Mercedes Benz Archive.